There are things that a woman sings, and only a woman knows the full meaning. You may sing for men as well as for women, but only a woman knows your …

- Gayl Jones

My great-grandmama told my grandmama the part she lived through that my grandmama didn't live through and my grandmama told my mama what they both li…

- Gayl Jones

I believe that all literatures can have political uses and misuses. Sometimes politics can enhance, sometimes it can get in the way of imaginative li…

- Gayl Jones

When you tell a story you automatically talk about traditions, but they're never separate from the people, the human implications. You're talking abo…

- Gayl Jones

I don't like that word 'discovery.' ... Sinatra was the first one to call Ray Charles a genius, he spoke of 'the genius of Ray Charles.' And after th…

- Gayl Jones

A lot of people they don’t know that Africans even named the stars, that different peoples, different so-called native peoples, have their own names …

- Gayl Jones

I learned to write by listening to people talk. I still feel that the best of my writing comes from having heard rather than having read.

- Gayl Jones

You change the rhythm of the talk and respoonse and you change the rhythm between the talk and the response.

- Gayl Jones